Originally Posted by
kymiller
Great advice. There is quite a bit more R inventory available out of IAH. A bit out of the way but wouldn't mind the extra time in the sky if I'm flying Polaris. Very frustrated with the lack over available R inventory out of SFO or LAx, though :/
Yeah, I included IAH-SYD and LAX-MEL in the "possibly" category since they would require a split-ticket connection in IAH or MEL, respectively (actually, looks like SFO-AKL is not a single-ticket option either).
When we were planning an ANZ vacation last year, I had an Excel spreadsheet where I had the number of seats in the lowest inventory class for each of SFO-AKL/SYD and LAX-SYD/MEL for all of 28 days in a 4-week span. I updated it periodically and was able to take available R that we liked. Personally, I find an investment of this time very worth it (turned 4xGPU into a $4,000 discount against a very good paid J price), but ymmv.
And be patient! You have several months to scope out the landscape, and inventory changes frequently.